I found Imagine in my search for brain books. Actually, it was a really pushy Chapters salesman who pointed it, and e.v.e.r.y. other book in the section out to me. I really wanted him to leave. I don't think he had a clue (about anything), let alone that he was wasting time with a customer who was getting ideas for what to borrow from the library.
Imagine is neuroscience meets creativity with a side of behavioural studies. It's really interesting stuff, and it just might inspire you to have confidence in your own creativity. If you like reading about interesting studies, you'll enjoy the book. Yes, it's one of those. His chapter topics are great too, from how Bob Dylan came to be such an amazing song writer to why we live in cities. The only part that I wasn't enthralled with was the chapter about Pixar. If you've already read Steve Job's biography...well, the location of Pixar's bathroom is only so interesting.
Lerher is a smart guy - he studied at Columbia and Oxford - but he's being accused of being pretty dumb too. Jonah Lerher has been under some pressure to rename his 2009 book "How We Decide Whether to Cheat or Not" after allegations surfaced of plagiarism, inventing quotes and recycling his own old material. If it's on Wikipedia, it's a fact, right? Here is another example of criticism from slate.com. Would a Rhodes scholar cheat? I really hope Lerher didn't cheat, but I'm not sad I read the book. Perhaps he's researching his next book Why We Cheat. Well, I enjoyed James Frey's A Million Little Pieces even if it was a work of fiction.
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